For turning cooked sausages into sandwiches, see About Hot Dogs. A quality sausage is well seasoned and needs little embellishment to be satisfying, but a pile of sauerkraut or some creamy mashed potatoes and a good whole-grain mustard never hurt. If cooking crépinettes, we recommend pan-frying and grilling.

I. POACHED

Bring 8 cups water to a boil in a medium pot. Add:

Bring to a very low boil, then reduce the heat to maintain a faint simmer. Cook until the center of the sausages registers 160°F, 10 to 15 minutes.

II. PAN-FRIED

Place in a large skillet over medium heat:

Cover and cook, turning often, until evenly browned. Precooked sausages will take 5 to 6 minutes to brown and warm through; fresh sausages will take 10 minutes or so to cook through completely and brown.

III. SPLIT AND GRIDDLED

This is our preferred method for cooking hot dogs indoors. We highly recommend using an extra skillet or grill press to weight the hot dogs down as they cook.

Preheat the oven to 200°F.

Split lengthwise without cutting all the way through:

Melt in a large skillet or griddle over medium heat:

Add half the sausages, opening each one like a book, placing them cut side-down in the pan, and pressing down with a spatula so they lie flat. Occasionally press down on them as they cook, or weight them down with another skillet or a grill press so the entire cut surface is in contact with the pan. Cook until browned, about 6 minutes or to your liking. Transfer to a plate and keep warm in the oven. Add more butter to the pan and brown the remaining sausages.

IV. GRILLED

Hot dogs and precooked sausages are a brown-and-serve affair—about 5 minutes over direct heat will usually do the trick. Grilling fresh sausages is a little trickier, since they need to be cooked through and contain fat that renders out and causes flare-ups. Cooking them through with indirect heat before browning them over the flames is relatively foolproof. If you have a gas grill that can maintain a low heat—or the ability to cook items 8 inches or more from the hot coals—you may cook the sausages over direct heat the whole time, which will lend them an especially smoky flavor. For another approach, see Bratwurst.

Prepare a hot, two-zone grill fire, or preheat a gas grill on high for 10 minutes. If using a gas grill, reduce the heat of one of the burners to low. Place on the cooler side of the grill:

Cover the grill and cook until they are firm and register an internal temperature of about 160°F, about 8 minutes for 1-inch-thick sausages. Move them over direct heat and cook until nicely browned, turning occasionally.